Categories: reading
Date: 14 June 2006 13:05:14
I've just finished reading DBC Pierre's second novel, Ludmila's Broken English. I haven't read his first book, Vernon God Little (which won the Booker Prize), as yet: when I saw Ludmila's Broken English at the local library, after hearing an interview on radio with him, I grabbed it.
The book contains two stories, which end up meeting thanks to the internet: two recently-separated (as adults) conjoined twins in England and a far outpost of the former USSR with a family trying to survive trying times. I found the story very engaging most of the time, but in a few places I found my interest waning slightly: and there was one scene in which, due to me finding it far too gruesome, I visibly winced: on the train: not sure if any fellow passengers saw me, or what they thought of it. That kind of put me off a bit as I'm not one for violence.
DBC Pierre has a very good wit and it shows through in the novel: plenty of dark, dry and laugh-out-loud comedy. One of the most amusing aspects is the invented language he uses for the Russian area: from sayings such as "Smack your cuckoo!", to insults generally involving farm animals, to the transliterated majesty of "And kindly excavate your ears" and "You have an entire zoological garden of questions today." Descriptions throughout are overloaded with similes and metaphors ("Lavender sunlight spilled like syrup over corrugations of snow") and the conversations between the brothers have similarly florid tones: "Can you not sense a juniper-influenced restorative trend in the offing?" I did find this very interesting and quite fun to read.
All up: an enjoyable, and entertaining read. I think I will search out Vernon God Little.